Earlier this month, EA held a Final Hours event for Battlefield 3. I had an opportunity to interview executive producer Patrick Bach. I asked him a few questions from a Twitter follower Juan Letona (@ibitjuan). Here are his answers to… Continue Reading →

Earlier this month, EA held a Final Hours event for Battlefield 3. I had an opportunity to interview executive producer Patrick Bach. I asked him a few questions from a Twitter follower Juan Letona (@ibitjuan). Here are his answers to them and some questions of my own.

These are from Letona:Why are military shooters so popular?
I think it’s human nature to hunt prey, to aim and hit stuff. There’s a natural feedback loop of chasing and hitting something. You see people playing paintball. It’s a natural part of how the human brain works and translating that to a first person shooter is a good way of getting that. You can do Battlefield as a sci-fi game or a paintball game. It doesn’t have to be a military shooter to be fun. People read military books and they read conflicts today and conflicts tomorrow. The modern day war is interesting.

Where does your creative drive come from?Great media — whatever it is — is always inspiring. Books and movies. Architecture. People being creative. It’s always interested me. I get satisfied when you do different things, when you use all different senses.

Here are my own questions:What were the challenges in making Battlefield 3?If you’d put it in one sentence, we think of what do we want in the future. We always challenge ourselves. If you want to make a true successor of Battlefield 2, you have to look at the advance processing power all the way down to the console.

It’s about taking everything into account — audio animation. We’ve been building Battlefield games for years. How do you create this perfect balance for a long time. The challenge is to find ways to attract people and get people to enjoy it over six months or a year. They find the attraction to the depth of the game. How do you create that longevity in the product?

Did you guys make any compromises during development?We’ve been doing a lot of compromises in all aspects of the game. Take a look at the animations. Pretty animations are sometimes slow. A shooter needs to be quick. We needed to compromise how fast to turn around a reload. If you want a really nice reload, we needed to cut the time by half.

In your talk, you mentioned listening to the community, how did you guys do that and what affect does the community have on the game?The person who plays the game they need to be entertained and we need to listen to the consumer period. We don’t always do exactly what the consumer wants. If you make a game, the challenge is to create a balance between all of these. We never want the player to feel like I can’t play this game so we cater to a lot of different play styles. We have some people in the office that never shoot. They defend themselves. The’re never offensive.

One of the best maps, I’ve played was Damavand Peak. What went into the creation of that multiplayer level?There’s different ways to design and that came from one of the team members. The cool thing with that map is that you can move down. Instead of making a horizontal map, we made it vertical. The BASE jumping was the defining wow moment in that multiplayer map. We try to achieve that with all our maps. We want to create these wow moments. It doesn’t have to be an explosion. But every map has to have a wow moment. People forget the names of the map and you need something to latch onto. It’s part of the core design philosophy.

The other map that impressed me was Operation Firestorm. Can you talk about that?It’s huge. It looks cool and you want to jump into it and play it. It’s another way of creating a wow moment. We were trying to be modest than trying to do something controversial with a map. It can be cheesy if you go to far.

I know that the PC is the lead platform for Battlefield 3. What do you think of gamers’ reaction to that? More specifically the consoles.At times people are upset. We love console games. I’m a console gamer at my core. But if you want to create something great, why not use it on the best possible platform. The discussion has been skewed. It’s turned into my machine is better than your machine. Battlefield is just as good on the console. From a tech standpoint, PC’s don’t have a limiting factor. Consoles look great but PC looks even better. We want to build this engine for the future.

So talk about the rivalry with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 if you see any? Do you buy into it?It’s inevitable. Both have a 3 behind them. I think it’s a bit silly. They’re actually quite different. I’d be surprised if people say it’s the same game. It’s two different interpretation of the same inspiration. We can’t look at each other during the development. If we have any similarities, it’s a coincidence.

When I was playing, I liked how you can see your feet and legs sometimes. It reminded me of Mirror’s Edge, did work on that bleed into the development of Battlefield 3?Mirror’s Edge was a clear inspiration. It was trying to pull off a true first-person experience. We can do the same in Battlefield. You can definitely see the connection between the products.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2011/10/28/battlefield-3-producer-on-making-great-maps-rivalry-with-modern-warfare-3-interview/feed/14bf3 2011-10-25 15-34-18-46Mirror’s Edge getting head-spinning new mapshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/12/04/mirrors-edge-getting-head-spinning-new-maps/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/12/04/mirrors-edge-getting-head-spinning-new-maps/#commentsThu, 04 Dec 2008 20:36:45 +0000http://www.ibabuzz.com/videogames/?p=2915If you’re like me and you have no problem with first-person platformers, then this is good news. But if you’re like other folks who can’t handle the head-spinning, herky jerky motion of a Mirror’s Edge, this could be something you… Continue Reading →

If you’re like me and you have no problem with first-person platformers, then this is good news. But if you’re like other folks who can’t handle the head-spinning, herky jerky motion of a Mirror’s Edge, this could be something you couldn’t care less about.

But one of the most refreshing games of the year is getting some downloadable content. In late January, fans can download a map pack that includes nine new races across seven new maps for $10 or 800 Microsoft points. If you’re a Mirror’s Edge fan, you’re probably salivating at the video (above) of the free PS3 map.

By Wes Schwengels Reviewer So here I am, running from masked police who are shooting at me just because I was doing my job. Sixty floors above the city’s streets, fleeing for my life, looking for any possible escape route,… Continue Reading →

So here I am, running from masked police who are shooting at me just because I was doing my job. Sixty floors above the city’s streets, fleeing for my life, looking for any possible escape route, and yet I can’t help but notice how gorgeous the skyline looks today. Especially that crane over yonder…

This is Mirror’s Edge, an absolute masterpiece of a game that has received a lot of hype since it made its debut earlier in the year. In this case, the buzz is well deserved.

Mirror’s Edge follows the story of Faith, a young Runner — or more accurately put, a messenger-acrobat-martial arts fighter — whose job is to relay information between people who are rebelling against the authoritarian government and police force. As the game opens, Faith learns her twin sister, a cop, has been framed for murder. It’s up to our heroine to free her sis from a certain prison sentence — and likely worse.

But the plot, while solid and even touching at times, is about the 20th-best reason to play Mirror’s Edge. The main reason for all the hype is the gameplay, which can best be described as a first-person, parkour-style take on platformers with a nearly constant sense of urgency.

The game teaches you all you need to know early, including wall-running, slide kicks, speed vaulting and even slowing down time to disarm enemies. But it’s up to you to be aware of your surroundings and find the quickest way from Point A to Point E, even if Point B is a moving subway car, Point E is a flying helicopter and Point C is guarded by dozens of angry, ninjalike cops.

There are more than a handful of jaw-dropping moments, led by the one involving the aforementioned crane, but getting to those points is equally as fun. The developers at DICE did an excellent job of pacing the game and knowing when to give the player a break. Make it past a round of trigger-happy police, and you’re rewarded with a challenging but authority-free climb through the innards of an office building.

Then again, it’s so fun to take a cop’s gun while kicking him in the head, sometimes it’s worth it to try and shoot it out John Wayne-style. Heck, sometimes it’s necessary.

The first-person viewpoint works well, especially considering all the running, jumping and tumbling you’ll endure. Sprint and you’ll see Faith’s hands in your peripheral vision; take a flying leap and you’ll see her feet kick in mid-air. There’s a little motion-blur while running at top speed, but never enough to lose track of where you are and where you’re supposed to go.

You’ll never see a map in Mirror’s Edge, but it’s hard to get lost since a quick press of the B button will point you at your next exit or target. Many objects that you need to use, like vaults, balance beams, zip lines and climbable pipes, turn red when you approach them. And while some of the more puzzlelike jumps and climbs take a little thought, at no point did it feel like the game was unfair.

Visually, Mirror’s Edge is impressive. Rooftop skylines are very clean and bright, and interiors are well lit and nicely detailed. I found myself breaking windows just to watch the glass shatter. And when you’re jumping between rooftops and sneaking along ledges, the game does a good job of reminding you that you are in fact about 60 floors above street level.

The sound effects are also excellent, from running footfalls to that dreaded splat/crunch that follows a missed rooftop jump, and the soundtrack, while minimal, does a nice job of reflecting what’s going on at any given time. The 2-D cutscenes between chapters are a nice break, though they do remind me of the cartoony Esurance commercials.

There’s really not much to dislike here, but I’ll mention a couple of demerits. The game is pretty short, clocking in at about 12 hours my first time through on normal difficulty. Then again, it is neat to run through it again to see if you can find all the secrets and discover quicker shortcuts. Plus, time trial modes encourage you to get through courses as quickly as possible, something that kept me entertained for days.

Another negative: There are a few times where making a jump seems to depend more on luck than on skill. But, honestly, they’re so few and far between that they’re easily forgiven. The game might be a little too easy on normal difficulty, but it’s still an amazing experience, and there’s always Hard the next time through.

But these are minor deficiencies that should in no way keep you from buying this game. You won’t regret it. Just try not to get distracted when you’re on top of that crane; after all, it’s a long way down.

Not to be outdone, Electronic Arts also released its launch date for Mirror’s Edge. The first-person parkourlike game will be coming out Nov. 11 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. (Gotta mark that on my review calendar.) PC folks… Continue Reading →

Not to be outdone, Electronic Arts also released its launch date for Mirror’s Edge. The first-person parkourlike game will be coming out Nov. 11 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. (Gotta mark that on my review calendar.) PC folks will have to wait until later this winter.

Along with the release date, EA also said that “prior to launch” the company will also be releasing a demo on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The demo will include a tutorial level and a segment of the single-player campaign. Folks who pre-order will get a code to unlock a Time Trial mode in the demo. Eh, that could be worth it.

I just have two pieces of advice when playing this game: Always follow the red on the screen and long jumps need a ton of momentum so get a long running start.

Now, I wonder if there’s going to be any more release date information?

You can’t go on making Battlefield games forever. There’s only so much you can do with a multiplayer war game before it becomes trite and almost burdensome. DICE, the Swedish studio that helms the series, has taken it to the… Continue Reading →

You can’t go on making Battlefield games forever. There’s only so much you can do with a multiplayer war game before it becomes trite and almost burdensome.

DICE, the Swedish studio that helms the series, has taken it to the future, to Vietnam, to contemporary times. Following this pattern, I could predict that the next five titles may be Battlefield: Civil War re-enactment, Battlefield: Sparta or Battlefield: War and Peace.

But thankfully, DICE has gone a completey different direction for its next project. It still retains that first-person perspective but the gameplay concepts they’re introducing are new to the style.

Lars Gustavsson, creative director, says that the team has always been a fan of platformers, but the problem they had with them was the third-person perspective.

“We felt like we were watching a movie, not being in a movie,” he said and that’s where Mirror’s Edge comes in.

At it’s heart, it’s a first-person platformer coming to gamers via parkour. As the main character Faith, players take on the role of a courier in a highly monitored society. The only way citizens can communicate private messages is through runners like her.

When I demoed the game, I found myself on a rooftop. Mirror’s Edge has a surprisingly simple control scheme. The L2 button is to duck. The L1 button is to jump and the R2 button is to do a 180-degree turn.

The rest of the controls are mapped on the left and right sticks for movements and looking around. The square or X button slows down time so that Faith can adjust her jobs in midair.

Starting off, running across the level instantly seemed like second nature. Momentum plays a big role. To actually make some of the leaps, players have to head back and sprint forward. Pressing the duck button before landing lets players do a soft roll.

If they barely make the leap, they instantly grab onto the ledge and can pull themselves up. The control scheme gives players the tools that they’ll use throw out the game. There isn’t an upgrade system. Players will just have to figure how to use the controls to reach higher areas.

For example, there’s a section early in the level where wall jumping is possible. But how does Faith perform one? That’s where the 180-degree button comes in. She can jump and quick turn and jump and turn again. It’s very Jackie Chan-like.

To help players navigate the level, there’s also a runner’s vision that highlights the possible routes in red. Players can turn this off if they want to, but I found it helpful. Mirror’s Edge even supports the Sixaxis controls on some balancing parts (above) but it’s not required.

Lucky for us, we got to see another level that’s different from the one where Faith leaps across rooftops. This one took place underneath the city sewers. Gustavsson said that it was inspired by the underground areas of Tokyo.

Here, players make use of railings and ladders. The whole level looks like a giant jungle gym.

It’s interesting that no matter how much I watched or when I played the game, I didn’t get nauseous. Usually, titles that are so solidly first-person makes you Blair Witch Project sick.

But according to Gustavsson, DICE did a lot of testing and found that by making the perspective wider and creating a center of vision with a blue dot, players don’t get that motion sickness that you would expect. Funny side note: He seemed to sidestep the question about parkour but did mention Run, Lola, Run as an influence. It’s a pretty good flick.

Fans can expect this title to hit shelves this holiday season for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Wow, what a week. It was a good E3, and we have more than enough to write up over the weekend. Check back with us this week and over the next week as we write up every game we saw at E3, including Killzone, PlayStation Home, Dragon Age: Origins and Mirror’s Edge. For now, it’s going to be a long trip back to the Bay Area. Let’s hope we avoid that dreaded L.A. traffic.

The third and final game from my DICE excursion, and the most interesting one, is Mirror’s Edge. The only non-Battlefield game at the event, and as far as I can tell the only non-Battlefield game from DICE since RalliSport Challenge… Continue Reading →

The third and final game from my DICE excursion, and the most interesting one, is Mirror’s Edge.

The only non-Battlefield game at the event, and as far as I can tell the only non-Battlefield game from DICE since RalliSport Challenge 2 in 2004, Mirror’s Edge was touted as a first-person action-adventure game. It’s not a shooter because you don’t begin with a gun, and if you take one ammo is very limited. Rather than combat the game focuses on movement.

The game takes place in a contemporary city, but one where non-conformism is punishable by law. The citizens of the city have no rights but, as you can see in the screen shots, it’s a gleaming, clean, crime-free utopia. (These, by the way, are actual screen shots. You really can see for miles.) But what happened to those who weren’t willing to trade freedom for security? They were pushed to the outer edges of the city and mostly ignored.

This is where you come in. You are Faith, a Runner. Since the government openly admits to monitoring emails, cell phones and mail, your job is to hand-deliver messages between resistance leaders. Since there’s so much surveillance this forces you to rooftops and other precarious positions.

As is suggested by the term “Runner,” you spend most of the game running while police and other armed people chase you. The goal is to maintain momentum since slowing down makes it an easier shot.

The game helps you do this in a few ways. First, Faith is extremely agile. She can get to places fairly easily and will compensate and grab ledges so you don’t have to precisely line up jumps, a common complaint in this sort of game.

The controls are also simplified. To make Faith use her agility requires only two buttons, one to go up and one to go down. Up makes her climb fences, jump over low obstacles, pull herself onto ledges and so on. Down makes her slide under low obstacles as well as land in a roll at the end of a jump.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, they don’t make you hunt for where to go next. The game is based on running, evading enemies and navigating obstacles, not searching for the best route. To that end the next step turns red as you approach. (For example, this crane.) Their explanation for this is that Faith can see the best way to go based on her natural talent and experience, but really it’s a built-in pathfinding system. Whether or not it simplifies it too much or pulls you out of the action remains to be seen, but it removes the most obvious source of frustration in a game like this, namely being shot because you couldn’t find how to advance.

All in all it looks like it could be an interesting new idea and it’s good to see a big company like EA greenlighting a potentially innovative gameplay concept. At the same time there’s a reason innovation fell out of favor, it may not work, but so far it does look promising. We’ll find out when it’s released later this year.